Leeds, Alabama-based Marvin’s Building Materials and Home Centers is adding to its fleet of mid-sized home centers that serve the Southern home builder and the homeowner.

The store in Ozark, Alabama, is currently under construction and is expected to open in the spring of 2015. When completed, the Alabama chain will operate 28 stores. The store will feature a 30,000-sq.-ft. home center in addition to an attached lawn and garden center and drive-through lumberyard.

Las Vegas — The retail panel discussion started with customer service and advanced to strategic planning. From there, it detoured at automatic doors — apparently still a novelty in rural Texas — and finished with a somewhat optimistic economic forecast.

Home Hardware Center is preparing to expand its 18-store footprint in Mississippi and Louisiana, according to the company's owners, who say they are looking to bring acquisition expertise to a new venture called Central Network Retail Group (CNRG).

From New York’s Island to the Redwood Forests, the great American hardware store maintains a revered place in the commercial history of these United States.

On the following pages, Home Channel News editors travel state-by-state to find examples of leading hardware store retailers. To those deserving candidates not on the list — and there are many — we offer this advice as consolation: “Keep up the good work. We’ll get to you eventually.”

Leeds, Ala.-based Marvin's Building Materials and Home Centers will open a new store in Monroeville, Ala., this spring. The store will be the company's 27th home center and will be built on the site of a former Food World grocery store.

The new, 35,000-sq.-ft. store is expected to be open for business in late May. The location will include an attached lawn and garden center and drive-through lumberyard.

Around the country, in regions where college football has taken on championship dimensions and bowl game invitations, HCN reached out to home improvement and building material industry boosters for color commentary on their local teams. Here's what we heard: